Perspectives and perceptions

Just recently I was reading my emails.. personal ones. And I sat down to reply to them. That suddenly I realized I'd fallen into such a pattern that I didn't even notice when I stopped replying to emails. I didn't notice when I stopped writing emails. My life had become a mirror of IMs and selfies and #tags and check-ins and +1s and likes... always connected *yay* but then have I lost the essence of life? Have I started thinking in bullet points? Do everything need to have a point? Are we breathing shorter breaths? When was the last time I broke into a dance? When was the last time I wrote poetry? I don't know when this change happened, the whole whatsapp craze, and don't get me wrong, I LOVE whatsapp. I love that I'm this close to my friends and family, but then again I want that to be secondary or complimentary but not solitary. And so I decided the easiest thing to do would be to write. That's simple right? You used to write, you stopped doing it, just...

Last year in the month of October, I had the pleasure of visiting this gorgeous little country south of India called Sri Lanka with my family. We had 7 days in that country and even though we might have packed in a tad too much, the memories are just wonderful. Even though I'm going to be sharing my experiences months after, I feel they're still going to be as rich. :) We were in SL for a week and we stayed in Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Yala National Park, Galle and Colombo. As soon as landed in Colombo, we met our guide/driver/man friday who had organized a fancy van for us to travel in. My first introduction to the fact that nearly all cars in SL are imported (kind of obvious if you know that they have no auto industry of their own!) Day 1: We were set to go to Nuwara Eliya in the evening but our first stop was going to be at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage (90 km from Colombo). Luckily for us the elephants were having a bath in the river during this time. I know everyone...

You know that feeling when you've been sitting on things that you've been meaning to get done and you just don't get past the idea? Can you believe that the last time I posted a blog was in August of last year! And this is a year when I've done very very exciting stuff. I visited Sri Lanka which deserves a post of its own, went to US and had a wonderfully scenic drive to Monterey, spent yet another fantastic new year in Hong Kong, read many amazing books which transformed my beliefs about life, watched some insane movies which I thought I was bound to hate and in general so much of my life went by and I didn't write about it... I just lost track of my blog and got so busy with survival that I stopped living in a sense. Everyone talks about "switching off" and how one must learn to take breaks, but gosh, it's so difficult. I decided to stay away from work for a couple of days so I can get back some of my sanity but the urge to check your email, to che...

I always find the beginning of a post the hardest to write, and then I decide to just start writing and I bet by the time I'm done, I'll be the author of yet another loong post. :) This year has been fantastic in terms of my travel. Oh yes I've had some horrid experiences with transit visas but then I've learned a HELL lot from those experiences so that my next travels are a lot smoother. The US trip was special like that, because I researched and found and practically booked the flights and the hotels myself and ended up with a perfect trip. If you know me then you know that I'm jinxed when it comes to flights, tickets, dates and sometimes even online payments! But then, that's the challenge, and thankfully this time I managed to catch all my flights on time. Major win! After my Boston trip last year, this year was a totally different trip. I visited 4 cities for starters, San Francisco, Miami, New York and Boston. I think I didn't end up doing justice...

There are times when you need to hear things from someone else. Someone who has a third perspective about you and about your life. Today was one of those days, nights actually. :) I learnt a lot of things that I should've known or probably already knew but wasn't accepting or practicing. The thing about life is that it happens, it goes on and we can't afford to stop, second-guess or try and resist it. That's what I've been doing for a while now. Trying to contain myself, trying to avoid getting into things which I'm afraid of, and in a way trying to avoid letting go. While talking to a friend, he told me, very simply, you could be walking on a street and someone fell on you and you could get hurt, would that stop you from walking? If not, then why would an accident stop you from traveling. Yes, maybe it should act as a reminder to take things slow and to make slightly more logical decisions, but you can't live in fear of a 'what if' scenario. If ...

Okay so I've been on a rom-com movie watching spree lately. I have these mood swings in which I can't stand to watch anything non-fictional. I love watching happy endings and feeling all mushy-mushy. So I had this movie and hadn't seen it till now. I read up some reviews on IMDB and it sounded like my kind of a movie. The movie transcends through time and is told in a very beautiful fashion. About the lives of two lovers who meet when they were 17-18 and talks about how their lives span out. Allie Hamilton, beautifully essayed by Rachel McAdams, is the only daughter of a millionaire who comes to the town of Seabrook to spend her summer break. Noah, played by Ryan Gosling, is a worker at the local log factory. He happens to see Allie at the carnival night and finds himself immediately attracted to her. He pursues her and finally wins her over by getting her to agree on going out with him. He shows her what it is to be really free, to do things because you want to do the...

A few of us friends were just talking and discussing about the ways in which we all go about our trips! It's funny, I'm a control freak of a person most of the times, (lying), actually all the time, but thanks to my friends, I've grown to like the unexpectedness and the unplanned mode of all our trips! I've literally reached a point where I don't want to go on a planned trip because that'll be just too boring and too decided... that element of surprise which brings with it the happiness, the joy and the exposure is just too beautiful and as a friend rightly put it, it's liberating! Megha and I tend to plan our days so much, that those few days of just being and just existing and just doing things based on what we feel and what we want feel like we've broken out of some sort of chains and it just automatically calms us down. Like when we had gone to Goa for the first time. We didn't know what to expect, where to go, nothing. We just got off at an earl...

The weekend's here and I'm turning a year old. Hmm.. Wrong tense. I have turned a year older. Doesn't feel any different though. Feels better in some way. Though last night seemed a bit odd. :P Sitting at home, watching movies, and yapping away to glory with friends at 12 in the night! I remember how the entire idea of celebrating a birthday used to seem fruitless and pointless to me some years ago, but now I guess I understand and even cherish this idea of celebrating oneself and celebrating time with friends. What I love is that it gives us an opportunity to talk and catch up with friends and that's precisely what happened! I had a great conversation with a friend of mine, Riddhi from Delhi and we spoke about so many things!! For nearly 2 hours and I was like, wow, that's something! It feels great to be loved, appreciated, and wished by so many friends, relatives and people! I'm super thrilled! In celebration plans, party at home with friends for 2 nights! :)...

This whole mystical word, that forever teases you, surrounds you with warmth, and yet you yearn for the cold, just so that you feel, those arms hold you strong... In moments of joy, in times of agony, why does that one person, become your only solace, and why can't you ever forgive, that absence momentarily... Through the journey of many years, you feel, you touch, and you know, but still every time after some time, the first glance, the first touch, still makes you shiver... How is it that most people, have to prod you so many times, almost always manage to bug you some times, fail to evoke those emotions at times, but you always smile for him at all times... :)

Never before has a Christmas break meant so much to me, Never before have I felt the Xmas cheer! Oh! To have 10 days off feels like happiness is here! I'm so happy and so thrilled I can't think straight! I've got work, and no time but it cannot make me sad... I'm still happy as a jaybird and I feel like a song... I want to sing... "All I want is a room somewhere, Far away from the cold night air. With one enormous chair, Aow, wouldn't it be loverly? Lots of choc'lates for me to eat, Lots of coal makin' lots of 'eat. Warm face, warm 'ands, warm feet, Aow, wouldn't it be loverly? Aow, so loverly sittin' abso-bloomin'-lutely still. I would never budge 'till spring Crept over me windowsill. Someone's 'ead restin' on my knee, Warm an' tender as 'e can be. 'ho takes good care of me, Aow, wouldn't it be loverly? Loverly, loverly, loverly, loverly" Happy happy me! Happy holidays to you! :D

It's been a little more than a month at my new college... Xavier Institute of Communications. While there are a few things that I don't like about the college, like their strict implementation of a dress code!! (imagine not being able to wear sleeveless tops, no knee length skirts, no three-fourths even!) I've literally run out of jeans and tops and kurtas by now.. but we trudge on... Apart from that I'm thoroughly enjoying the course. The kind of amazing insights that we get from our faculty members, coupled with some good competition in class is really a refreshing change from graduation! Just a couple of days back we had this amazing class by Josie Paul, who's currently running an agency in Mumbai, he actually taught us how our everyday images, conversations and scenes become inspirations for advertisements. Some of the greatest ad concepts are actually from the copywriter's real life experiences. That thought set us all thinking and soon the entire class was...

I have always seen and heard my friends talking about driving a car… till today I never had the courage to actually do it. But do it I did. I took a risk. For the first time in my life probably, I acted upon someone else’s trust in me, and actually went ahead with the plan. It was time for me to leave for my dance class, I thought I’ll take a bus or the auto. Something that my friend said made me think about taking the car. I decided to take the risk. Basically all this while, I’ve been waiting for someone to push me to do it. I don’t think I could’ve pushed myself at all. My mother was and probably is paranoid about my driving. She can’t relax in the car around me. That’s why I’ve never had the courage to drive on my own before. But today something struck me, something inside me made me want to do it. I took the car out nice and slow. Knowing the roads pretty well helped cause that didn’t come in my way of driving. I went on to the highway and was comfortable driving at 40. I wanted t...